African Game Trails 
155 
the beautifully marked harnessed antelope 
rams of the west coast forests. The ewes 
and young rams showed the harness mark¬ 
ings even more plainly; and, as with all 
bushbuck, were of small size compared 
to the old rams. These bushbuck were 
found in tall grass, where the ground was 
wet, instead of in the thick bush where 
their East African 
kinsfolk spent the 
daytime. 
At the bushbuck 
camp we met a num¬ 
ber of porters return¬ 
ing from the Congo, 
where they had been 
with an elephant 
poacher named Bus- 
herri—at least that 
was as near the name 
as we could make out. 
He had gone into the 
Congo to get ivory by 
shooting and trading; 
but the wild forest 
people had attacked 
him, and had killed 
him and seven of his 
followers, and the 
others were straggling 
homeward. In Kam- 
palla we had met 
an elephant hunter 
named Quin who had 
recently lost his right 
arm in an encounter 
with a wounded tusk¬ 
er. Near one camp 
the head chief pointed 
out two places, now 
overgrown with jun¬ 
gle, where little vil¬ 
lages had stood less J° hari with £ 
than a year before. From a p ,10t0 " ra P h 
In each case elephants 
had taken to feeding at night in the sham- 
bas, and had steadily grown bolder and 
bolder until the natives, their crops ruined 
by the depredations and their lives in 
danger, had abandoned the struggle, and 
shifted to some new place in the wilder¬ 
ness. 
We were soon to meet elephant ourselves. 
The morning of the 28th was rainy; we 
struck camp rather late, and the march was 
long, so that it was mid-afternoon when 
Kermit and I reached our new camping 
place. Soon afterward word was brought 
us that some elephants were near by; we 
were told that the beasts were in the habit 
of devastating the shambas, and were bold 
and truculent, having killed a man who had 
tried to interfere with them. Kermit and I 
at once started after them, just as the last of 
the safari came in, 
accompanied by Cun- 
inghame, who could 
not go with us as he 
was recovering from 
a bout of fever. 
In half an hour we 
came on fresh sign, 
and began to work 
cautiously along it. 
Our guide, a wild¬ 
looking savage with a 
blunt spear, went 
first, followed by my 
gun-bearer Kongoni, 
who is excellent on 
spoor; then I came, 
followed by Kermit, 
and by the other gun- 
bearers. The coun¬ 
try was covered with 
tall grass, and stud¬ 
ded with numerous 
patches of jungle and 
small forest. In a few 
minutes we heard the 
elephants, four or five 
of them, feeding in 
thick jungle where the 
vines that hung in 
tangled masses from 
the trees and that 
draped the bushes 
made dark caves of 
1 Uganda kob. greenery. It was diffi- 
by Kermit Roosevelt. CU lt tO find any Space 
clear enough to see 
thirty yards ahead. Fortunately there was 
no wind whatever. We picked out the 
spoor of a big bull and for an hour and a 
half we followed it, Kongoni usually in the 
lead. Two or three times, as we threaded 
our way among the bushes, as noiselessly 
as possible, we caught glimpses of gray, 
shadowy bulks, but only for a second at 
a time, and never with sufficent distinct¬ 
ness to shoot. The elephants were feed¬ 
ing, tearing down the branches of a rather 
